Creating a shorcut for application

Question

I have two versions of qtcreator: first is installed by apt and binary is located in /usr/bin/. Second is installed in a custom location (I used a bundle from qt website). I run second version from terminal and then I choose option Lock to Launcher for qt icon. When I close qtcreator and launch again using that icon I get qtcreator from /usr/bin. Why ? How to fix it ?

Answer 1

To force the qtcreator launcher to point to the right location you can copy the .desktop file of the version installed by apt-get in your $XDG_DATA_HOME folder (default is ~/.local/share)

1. Open a terminal and copy the /usr/share/applications/qtcreator.desktop file to ~/.local/share/applications :

   cp /usr/share/applications/qtcreator.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
   

2. Edit the Exec= command to use your custom location:

   [Desktop Entry]
   Exec=<path_to_your_custom_location>/qtcreator %F
   Icon=QtProject-qtcreator
   Type=Application
   Terminal=false
   Name=Qt Creator
   GenericName=Integrated Development Environment
   MimeType=text/x-c++src;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-xsrc;application/x-designer;application/vnd.nokia.qt.qmakeprofile;application/vnd.nokia.xml.qt.resource;
   Categories=Qt;Development;IDE;
   InitialPreference=9
   

3. Now if you lock this new .desktop file in your Unity Launcher it should start the right version.

Reference: http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html